


I Like Me Better (When I'm With You)

by tiniestawoo



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Kissing, Light Hair Pulling, M/M, Parental lectures, Secret Relationship, Steo Week 2020, alcoholism (briefly), background Scott McCall/Lydia Martin, mentions of:, relationship announcement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:21:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26635765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiniestawoo/pseuds/tiniestawoo
Summary: Stiles and Theo have been hiding their relationship for so long that it was a well-ingrained habit. Two showers after they see each other, never touch in public, never evenlookat each other in public. It's been going pretty well until...it turns out maybe it wasn't as secret as previously expected.--Or, the one where Stiles and Theo think they've been sneaky, but they're both significantly easier to deal with when getting regular sex and well...they've been downright pleasant recently.
Relationships: Theo Raeken/Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 9
Kudos: 104
Collections: SteoWeek 2020





	I Like Me Better (When I'm With You)

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Steo Week! This is my finale fic for the week, so I hope you've enjoyed the content that's been produced. This fic is...fluff. Shameless, conflict-light fluff. It's just...the boys having worked through their issues and learned to be themselves together. And they're both better for it.
> 
> I had a lot of help from [ Jess](http://clotpolesonly.tumblr.com/) since the concept of writing fluff was totally foreign to me, but I did the thing!

Stiles’s heart was still beating frantically as he rolled to the side, landing with a quiet oof on the bed next to Theo. His eyes fell closed for a moment as he breathed, listening to the already even breathing of the chimera on the bed beside him. “Y’know, you should really do more of the work. You’re not even worn out.” 

Theo chuckled, and Stiles heard him shuffling around, opening his eyes to see Theo propped on his side next to Stiles. “There has to be _some_ benefits of being a genetic experiment.” 

“How long are you going to milk that?” Stiles asked with faux-annoyance, knowing from experience that he probably had a truly ridiculous blissed-out smile on his face.

“As long as you’ll let me,” Theo murmured, leaning in to press a kiss to Stiles’s lips. Stiles ran one of his hands into Theo’s hair, gripping it just enough to draw a hiss out of Theo, taking the opportunity to slide his tongue into the other’s mouth.

Ten years ago, if someone had told him that he’d be _in bed_ having sappy post-coital makeouts with Theo _fucking_ Raeken, he might have just flat out hit them. Really. Stiles’s therapist informed him that he had a lot of latent trauma and anger pent up as a result of having the end of his childhood snatched from him by forces outside of his control.

(Stiles _hated_ that she was right.)

Now, it felt as natural as breathing to tug the chimera closer, for Theo’s legs to fall to either side of Stiles’s hips in a practiced motion. It felt _right_ to revel in every little sigh of pleasure that Stiles managed to ring from him. 

Theo pulled away after a minute. “Do you remember what I asked you when I got here today?” he asked, sitting back against Stiles’s thighs. 

Stiles laughed. “You mean two orgasms ago? No, Theo, I do not remember what you asked me.”

“I asked you what you wanted to do about the engagement party.” 

Stiles frowned. “What about it?” 

Theo rolled his eyes. “How are you RSVPing, dumbass?” 

Oh. _Oh._ That question. 

_That question_.

This was never supposed to have been a _thing_. Theo and Stiles had started fucking around the time Stiles had returned from his aborted attempt at a graduate degree. It was just...boredom. It was a way to get out their mutual antagonistic energy. Stiles got to fuck Theo until he screamed and Theo got to occasionally grip too hard and leave bruises, to bite down into Stiles’s flesh just enough that the mark would stay for a week, just a twinge of pain to make everything real. It was supposed to be _temporary_.

It was not supposed to be three years later, breathing down the neck of Scott and Lydia’s engagement party, which was apparently a big deal even _before_ you factored in the Lydia Martin angle. The first True Alpha in a century marrying a banshee? Unheard of and hot news in the supernatural community. The McCall pack had been the center of attention for a long time for their efforts taking down Monroe’s Hunter enterprise. This was only exacerbating the fascination.

“I mean, I have to go. I’m the best man. Of honor. Best man of honor.” 

Theo let out a harsh breath through his nose that might have been a laugh if it wasn’t for the neutral expression on his face. Stiles knew Theo well enough to know that he was masking. “Are they still deciding which side you’re standing on?”

“Apparently they’ve been debating it since he proposed. I’ve been expressly directed to keep my nose _out_ of it.” 

“You’re avoiding the question.”

“You’re totally right.” Stiles rolled them over, dumping Theo off of him and settling on his side to look at him. “But you’re also avoiding _asking_ the question you want the answer to, so it’s not really my fault.”

Theo pursed his lips. “Fine. Stiles, are you going to tell the pack we’ve been dating for _three years_ behind all of their backs? And were you planning to maybe take the engagement party as an opportunity to do so, since you could get away with RSVPing together and letting them figure it out themselves?”

Another one of those ridiculously fond smiles fell onto Stiles’s lips. “You _remember_ that?”

“Unlike you, I wasn’t _wasted_ the entire first year we were fucking.” 

“Listen...I had a lot of shit going on.” 

“Mmhm.” Theo rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling, looking away from Stiles. “I’m tired of hiding it.” 

Stiles’s eyebrows both raised at that. Theo was certainly less guarded than he used to be, less likely to lash out with anger, less likely to throw daggers just to see them draw blood. But, vulnerability and straightforward, honest statements were something neither of them were particularly good at. (Stiles’s therapist told him it was because he was afraid that when he flat out told the truth, people would think he was lying. He’d been lying for so long, a practiced repertoire of “I’m fine” after his mother’s death, that it was just second nature. So, instead of saying something someone might not believe, he just talked around the actual answer to the question.) 

“Then let’s do it,” Stiles said quietly. 

Theo rolled over so quickly that before Stiles knew what was happening, he was flat on his back staring up at Theo’s grey eyes, filled with a kind of light, a kind of happiness that he saw so rarely. “You mean it?” 

Theo’s happiness was infectious. Stiles leaned up to press a kiss to the tip of Theo’s nose. “Yeah, I mean it. We’ve been hiding it for….reasons. We had reasons, right?” 

“Yes, Stiles. We had reasons.” Theo leaned down, rubbing his cheek against Stiles’s.

They’d been very careful in the beginning. Even with Scott away, finishing up vet school, there were enough werecreatures in Beacon Hills that Theo and Stiles had gotten into a routine. They always showered, twice if they could, before they saw anyone else from the pack. They’d experimented with it – the number of showers it took before Theo couldn’t smell himself on Stiles. Two seemed to be the sweet spot. One, and Theo said he could still smell himself. Three, and Stiles’s skin threatened to flake off like a snake.

“We’re all adults now, right?” Stiles mused. “It’s been...ten years or something. You’re, like, a fully fledged member of the pack. You even have _patrol_ duties. People like you.”

“Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?” Theo asked with a grin.

“Both, I think,” Stiles answered. “I’m just...I mean, fuck, my _dad_ doesn’t even know. I’m not crazy for being nervous, right?”

“No, you’re not crazy.” Theo leaned down to kiss Stiles’s temple. “I just...I want people to know we’re together. For once in my fucked up life, I did something _right_.”

“I don’t know if hate sex until we accidentally caught feelings counts as doing something right, but sure.”

“Stiles?” 

“Hm?”

“Just let me have this one.”

“You got it, babe.” 

\--

Theo wasn’t really _afraid_ of very many people. He’d been afraid, in a way, of Stiles at first. Even if he was undeniably human, there was a kind of ruthlessness to Stiles that Theo had long ago learned to be wary of. Stiles fought for what he cared about, and he did it without any care or consideration for what might happen to him. Those kinds of predators, Theo knew, were the most dangerous.

He wasn’t afraid of the pack, for the most part. Derek had gotten a lot less grumpy over time, and now it only took the tiniest grin across the room from Jordan before he was smiling. Malia had been scary at first, but once she’d determined he was no longer an immediate threat, she’d lightened up. (Kira’s return and their subsequent relationship had helped too.) Liam reminded Theo very much of a german shepherd puppy - ready to defend and fight, but not quite sure how to do so. Liam _could_ be dangerous, but he was easy enough to manage.

Scott, despite being the alpha, had never been _scary_. He probably should have been. Theo probably should have been terrified of what he could do, but Scott had never been that kind of alpha. Unlike the Beacon Hills alphas that had come before him, and others that Theo had been in contact with, he didn’t lead his pack through threats and fear. His pack followed him out of respect, out of reverence for him as their leader.

Lydia, however, was another story. 

So, naturally, when the strawberry blond showed up at the drugstore that Theo had managed for years, he couldn’t help the lump that formed in his throat. It didn’t get better when she strolled right up to him, raising one perfectly plucked eyebrow at him and nodding her head towards the back. Theo glanced around the store and then stepped around the counter, assuring the cashier he’d just be in the back if he was needed. 

Lydia followed him and waited until they were in Theo’s office before she said, “So, Scott and I got a very interesting RSVP in the mail the other day.” 

Theo dropped into his desk chair, folded his hands in front of him and nodded. “I wasn’t aware I was involved in the party planning, but if you need someone to go through your invitations, I guess I’m as good a choice as any.”

Lydia frowned, her sharp green eyes narrowing. She sat down in the chair across from him. “Theo, why are you listed as Stiles’s plus one?” 

“Why are you asking me and not Stiles?” 

“Because I was hoping that you, being the more reasonable between the two of you, though only by a very small fraction, might just _come out and say it_.”

“Come out and say what?” Theo asked with a faux-innocent smile.

Lydia’s eyes fell closed and she let out a long, shuddering breath. “How long have you been seeing Stiles, Theo?” 

Theo crossed his arms over his chest and sat back in his chair. “Almost three years.” 

Lydia’s face shifted with that admission, transitioning from frustrated disappointment into fond amusement. “I knew it.” 

Theo furrowed his brow. “You knew?” 

Lydia nodded. “Of course we knew.”

“We?” Theo asked, warily.

“I guess, technically, Malia figured it out first,” Lydia said with a shrug. “Apparently, you smell like Stiles...often.”

“I shower _twice_ ,” Theo said, leaning down to lift his shirt and sniff his skin. “We’re careful.”

“Not careful enough.” Lydia winked. “It’s been an open secret, Theo. Everyone in the pack knows, but none of us wanted to drag it out of either of you.”

“So...it’s okay?” Theo asked. He was only somewhat surprised that he found himself craving Lydia’s approval. Aside from Scott’s – and Noah’s – she was the person whose opinion Stiles valued the most. “I promise...I promise, I’m not going to hurt him.”

“Oh, I know, sweetheart.” Lydia stood up, swinging her purse onto her shoulder. “You’re a lot of things, Theo, but stupid isn’t one of them. If Stiles couldn’t take care of you himself, you know he’s got friends who could.”

“What does Scott think?” Theo asked just before Lydia left the room. “Has he ever...does he mind?”

“Scott values his pack's happiness, Theo. And we’re all happier when Stiles is getting fucked regularly.” Lydia threw a grin over her shoulder at him. “See you on Saturday!”

Theo sat back against his chair for a long time after she left, thankful that his cashier hadn’t needed his assistance for anything. 

They’d known. They’d known and _none_ of them had ever bothered to mention it, or step in, or try and stop them. 

It was almost like...they approved. They somehow approved of him – manipulative and homicidal – dating Stiles, who was the heart and soul of the pack. Any of the wolves would ( _had_ ) put their lives on the line for him without a second of hesitation. And yet, somehow, none of them were stepping in to keep Theo away from him.

The pack’s acceptance was heavy. It was a lot for Theo to realize that he was _accepted_. That he was _trusted_. People cared about him, _Stiles_ cared about him. It had taken years of proving to them that he really could change, that he was more than the monster the Doctors had tried to make him into. 

\--

Stiles groaned and zoomed in closer on the picture, hoping that maybe _this time_ he’d be able to make out the license plate from the grainy surveillance camera photo that he’d been trying to enhance all afternoon. Predictably, it was no better and he still couldn’t work out the last two symbols. He tossed his tablet onto his desk and sat back against his chair, sliding his glasses onto the top of his head and rubbing at his eyes. 

His security system beeped to alert him to the front door downstairs opening, and Stiles frowned. Several people had the keycode to his front door, but as far as he knew, he hadn’t been expecting any of them today, and certainly not at 2:30 in the afternoon. At the earliest, Theo got off work at 5:30, but he didn’t recall them having any plans tonight. 

(They tended to keep their more _illicit_ activities to Theo’s apartment anyway, since people were far less likely to stop by unannounced.)

“Stiles?” Scott’s voice called from downstairs.

“I’ll be down in a sec. Turn on the coffee maker!” Stiles called, standing up from his chair and stretching. It was probably for the best. He’d missed lunch anyway and if he’d continued staring at this fucking license plate any longer he might _actually_ break his tablet this time.

He headed downstairs to the kitchen where Scott, dressed in a _sweater-vest_ that had Stiles snickering and a pair of slacks, was fiddling with the coffee maker. “You should have told me you were coming over. I could have made some lunch.” 

Scott grinned over his shoulder. “I thought maybe I’d just pop in to see if there were any more secrets you were hiding in here.” 

Stiles froze with his hand on the handle for the fridge door and turned his head slowly towards Scott. “Secrets?”

Scott hit the brew button and turned to face Stiles, leaning his hip against the counter. “We got your RSVP.” 

He had what Stiles called his ‘alpha face’ on - eyes neutral, lips quirked slightly, his face otherwise emotionless. Theo and Scott were both masters of masking their reactions and both of them knew it bugged the _shit_ out of Stiles.

Stiles felt his face heat. “Oh.” 

Scott raised an eyebrow. “Oh? That’s all you have to say.”

“What do you want me to say? Do you want an explanation? An apology? A promise to end it?” Stiles swallowed around the lump that emerged at the thought of that. Of _ending_ what he had with Theo. 

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Scott asked, mask slipping away to reveal amusement. “It’s not like we’re kids anymore, Stiles. I’m not here to scold you.”

“I mean, you’re the alpha, dude.” Stiles let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and finally pulled the fridge open, grabbing the fixings for a sandwich and the coffee creamer, depositing it onto the counter next to the brewing coffee. “And...he killed you. I didn’t exactly know _how_ to tell you.”

“How about ‘Hey, Scott, by the way, Theo and I are dating’?” 

“We weren’t...at first. At first, it was just supposed to be sex. I _hated_ him still.”

“You hated everything back then, to be fair,” Scott pointed out. “Everything that wasn’t alcohol.”

Stiles cocked his head to the side in acknowledgement. “Anyway, when I started drunk hate-fucking Theo, I didn’t really realize that it was even really worthy of being announced. And then...he stuck around.”

“So, you’ve been with him for, like, almost three years and at no point thought maybe telling anyone was a good idea?” Scott furrowed his brow. “Does...does your dad know?”

“No,” Stiles said, bracing both hands against the counter. “Nobody knows. This was...damn it, Scott. This was my attempt to announce it _without_ this conversation.”

Scott chuckled. “You should know better than that.” Scott glanced around Stiles to check the time on the microwave. “If it’s any consolation, if she stuck to her schedule, Lydia should be interrogating Theo now.”

Stiles let out a bark of laughter. “Oh man. You sicced Lydia on him?” He bit into his sandwich, chewing thoughtfully.

“We decided I should be the one to tell you that we all knew all along.” 

Stiles choked. After a minute of coughing hard enough to dislodge the bit of sandwich from his trachea, and a few sips of the coffee that Scott helpfully pushed his direction, Stiles turned back to Scott. “What do you mean you all knew?” 

“Well, all the shifters. And Lydia. And Kira. Probably Jordan.” Scott grinned. “You smell like each other.”

Stiles gaped. “Theo _checked_. We take two fucking showers. What do you mean we smell like each other?”

“He’s a _chimera_ , Stiles. Not an actual werewolf or an alpha. I’m sure, to him, you didn’t, but Malia and I could still smell it.”

Stiles took another bite of his sandwich to give himself time to process the information. “So, why didn’t anyone ever say anything?”

Scott shrugged. “It wasn’t really our place to say anything. Plus, I mean, you were happy. Both of you have been so much more pleasant and, really, process of elimination only leaves one explanation for that.” 

Stiles rolled his eyes. “So, you’re good with it? The pack is...good with it?” 

“If he hurts you, and survives whatever you do to him yourself, there might be a fight for who gets to kill him, but otherwise, yeah, we’re good with it.” 

Stiles couldn’t help the relieved smile that spread across his face. He finished his sandwich while Scott caught him up on plans for Saturday, and then sipped at his coffee in amicable silence once he was done. 

As Scott prepared to leave, Stiles stopped him at the door. “You said everyone knew… Did anyone tell my dad?” 

The grin on Scott’s face couldn’t be described as anything less than wicked. “Oh no, Stiles. None of us were willing to take _that_ particular bullet for you. You might, uh, want to tell him before Saturday, though. Just to avoid making a scene. I don’t really care, but…”

“Yeah, but the future Dr. Martin-McCall absolutely would.” Stiles ran a hand through his hair. “Do you think he’s gonna be mad?” 

Scott gave another one of those practiced, emotionless alpha face smiles. “No idea.” He winked and headed towards his car. 

“Liar!” Stiles called as he walked away.

\--

“THREE YEARS, STILES?”

Stiles felt his face burn and Theo had half-hidden behind Stiles to shield himself from Noah’s wrath. Melissa was sitting at the kitchen table with an amused grin on her face. Noah was standing in front of the two of them, his face beet red. 

“It’s complicated, dad. At least I told you. It’s not like we’re getting married or anything.”

“Not ever?” Theo asked, surprised.

Stiles glanced briefly at his father to assess current threat levels and then glanced over his shoulder at Theo. “Do you even want to get married?”

“Are you asking me to marry you?”

“Would you...would you say yes?” Stiles ignored the quiet “ _Oh Jesus_ ” behind him.

Theo smirked. “We should probably at least wait ‘til after Scott and Lydia’s wedding.”

“Boys, can this conversation maybe wait for another time?” Melissa asked, still trying to hide her amusement behind her hand. “Noah, why don’t you sit down so we can talk about this like civilized people.” 

Noah grunted in frustration but dropped into the chair next to his wife and gestured at the other to chairs. Faster than Stiles could fully register, Theo had taken the one next to Melissa, and Stiles watched as the horror crossed his face when he realized that put him face to face with Noah. 

Stiles took the last chair and folded his hands across the top of the table. “Dad, I swear I was going to tell you. I just...we’ve been keeping it on the DL for so long…” 

“Eventually, secrets just become habits,” Theo said quietly, eyes on the table.

“Well, you’d certainly know, wouldn’t you?” Noah’s eyes were narrowed at Theo. 

“ _Dad_ ,” Stiles chided. “It’s been _ten years_ , okay? He’s a part of the pack, and he’s paid his dues. He’s --”

“He can speak for himself,” Theo cut Stiles off. “Mr. Stilinski, I know that I’m not your favorite person. I’m not really anyone's favorite person, and I get that.”

“You’re my favorite person.” Stiles said, tossing Theo a smile that the chimera struggled to return.

“And I know that this has to be a shock. I swear, neither of us were doing this to hurt anyone. We just...it’s complicated. We didn’t know how people would react and neither of us wanted to deal with _this_ if we didn’t have to.” Theo gestured to the people around the table as he spoke. “But I promise you that I’m not...I’m not who I used to be. I’m just a normal guy now. And…” Theo turned towards Stiles, the smile falling on his lips more easily. “And Stiles is really important to me.”

“Three years?” Noah turned to Stiles, his voice softer, the fight lost to the surprising vulnerability in Theo’s voice. 

Stiles shrugged. “First year was my first year back in Beacon Hills and I wasn’t really...functional.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Noah murmured.

“You’re one to talk,” Stiles shot back. “ _Anyway_ , the first year was a haze, the second year I was getting my shit together and everyone moved back to town and it just...seemed like a lot. And then this last year I just...we were so used to hiding it that, until Theo brought it up the other day, it was just the default.” 

“How did Scott react?” Melissa asked, reaching for the glass of wine she’d had with dinner. She used it to poorly hide her too-wide smile.

“Did you know too?” Stiles deadpanned, pursing his lips. 

Noah’s head whipped towards Melisa. “ _You knew?!”_

While Stiles and Theo had to mortifyingly sit through a second rendition of the “you smelled like each other” story, Stiles slid his hand across the table palm up. Theo stared at it for a minute before slipping his hand into Stiles’s and squeezing gently. 

\--

Later that night, in Stiles’s bed instead of Theo’s for a change, Theo lifted his head off Stiles’s chest to glance down at him. “It feels weird, now that everyone knows.” 

Stiles yawned. “It’s a little late for second thoughts, babe.” 

“No, not like, bad. Just...weird. Like...I’m here. We’re here in your bed instead of mine and it doesn’t matter. We don’t have to take two showers anymore. It’s...it’s _okay_ if you smell like me.” Theo settled back down his hand tracing shapes onto Stiles’s bare chest. 

“I thought the whole scent thing was just a wolf thing.” Stiles sat up abruptly, dumping Theo off his chest and gaping. “ _You’ve been lying to me_.” 

Theo sat up himself, eyes flicking to Stiles before he glanced down at the bedcovers. “I didn’t want you to feel bad. I understood why we were keeping the secret. It didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to bring up that I liked it when you smelled like me.”

“Do I smell like you now?” Stiles asked, biting at his bottom lip, grinning.

Theo looked up, eyebrows raised. “A bit, yeah.” 

Stiles leaned forward to press a kiss to Theo’s lips, running his hand into Theo’s hair and tugging gently on the strands. “Wanna make me smell more like you?” he asked against Theo’s lips.

“God yes,” Theo answered, and pressed Stiles back against the bed with a long kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to hear from you over on Tumblr! Also, there's a promo gif for this that you can reblog to help it reach more people. My username on Tumblr changed recently, but I'm now found at [hale-argent!](https://hale-argent.tumblr.com/)


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